Log Rafting and walking through swamp jungle 1956 in Baram District.

A log raft floating downriver photographed from my Marudi cliff top garden (including my flag pole) and efforts to prevent it knocking into the river bank. View of other rafts tied up.

Small boat being paddled in the Puyut River near Marudi in low lying country with the jungle trees meeting overhead. Iban paddlers having to lie low to get under a log. An area cleared for farming. A pig stye on stilts over a pond in which are water hyacinths, which are fed to the pigs, whose manure feeds the water plants. Nearby house on stilts, typical of Chinese small scale farmer.

Raft in the Tinjar River. The small Teru River tributary and its smaller Bunut River tributary leading into Bunut Lake. View of Dulit Mountain (4,000 ft) and, on the lakeside, view of the grave of the recently deceased Penghulu Lawai of the Kenyah longhouse at Long Teru. Olga No,1.

Lady Ravensdale (daughter of a Viceroy, Lord Curzon) in red dress and Helen Wallis (Home Economics Adviser), the Penghulu's flag and Philip Jones (Information Officer) and Sarawak Administrative Officer  Tinggang Malang. View from the grave, note money on sticks.

Going up the Teru at low water, sandy and muddy banks, breaking a tree trunk so that the boat can go over it, My boy [assistant] Tar and Sarawak Administrative Officer Wan Hashim. Note fighting cock in front of boat. Olga getting her exercise swimming.

A woven cane container with live fish in itat Bunut. This will be floated downstream to Marudi bazaar for selling fresh fish there. The lake at low water and the grave. Limestone at Long Melinau, Tutoh River.

Various views of a tapang tree. Hazy views of a Kayan longhouse and rice barns and views inside it. 

Pounding rice (a back breaking work), tropical rain and winnowing rice.

Sarawak Administrative Officer Dolhan (a Kuching Malay) carrying Government papers and others walking on felled tree trunks in low lying jungle country and then walking on invisible branches placed in the muddy swampy water.

About Ian Urquhart

Ian Urquhart was a decorated British soldier, posted to Sarawak, where he served from 1947 to 1965. A brilliant linguist with an abiding interest in learning about other people and their cultures, he was a natural fit to be a civil service officer.

In addition to his administrative duties, he studied the indigenous communities he encountered focusing on their varied languages. From 1951 to 1959, Ian published several articles published by the Sarawak Museum Journal.

It was during this period that he conducted many trips into the jungles of Sarawak, in particular the Kelabit highlands and the Ulu Baram. From 1957 his wife Bunty accompanied him and contributed to some of the filming. 

It was these trips that he documented on Silent Standard/Regular 8mm colour and b/w cinefilm leaving his family and the people of Sarawak with not only a detailed account of his life there, he annotated all 30 reels, 23 of which are available in this collection.